By Kuda Pembere
The Zimbabwe Community Health Intervention Research project (ZiCHIRe) on Friday held an awareness campaign under the Brotha2Brotha initiative targeting adolescent boys and young men.
The campaign comes in the nick of time as many programs in the Sexual Reproductive Health space have been pregnant with activities centred on adolescent girls and young women.
Speaking with HealthTimes, Tonderai Mushove , Brotha2Brotha Program Coordinator at ZICHIRE said the event provided their target population, the males aged between 10 and 24, an opportunity to get information on SRH services.
The Brotha2Brotha campaign according to Mushove was held with support from the National AIDS Council.
“We are here in Hopely at Rising star grounds with the Brotha2Brotha initiative. This program looks at the adolescent boys and young men. Under this program, we brought here in Hopley, sexual reproductive health related activities,” he said. “We found it important to include the young men and adolescent boys who were being left behind in programs. They will be getting an opportunity and awareness on SRH, HIV, GBV and Drug and Substance Abuse scourge which affects mostly the young men anf adolescent boys.”
Mushove said activities included health checks and sport as well as dance.
“We have various activities such as the colour run, volleyball, soccer and music and dance. This is for them to be engaged and involved. We are also offering free health services to the public. We have those offering HIV tests, BP checks and family planning and drug and substabce abuse awareness and also information on SRH and GBV,” he said.
He added that they encourage males to seek HIV services as well as psychosocial therapy.
“We are targeting males from 10 to 14. We found that in the past, the females had many programs to empower them in terms of their SRH information, GBV, they were also empowered with information on where to seek help for mental assistance.
“We also found it important to involve males because they were left behind in terms of empowerment. When working with the males, we want them to make informed decisions in terms of their health and improve their health seeking behavior,” Mushove said.
He said uptake of health services under the Brotha2Brotha banner has improved among males.
“It is very much encouraging to see how the uptake for the services under Brotha2Brotha are being taken. For example, we do HIV testing when our adolescent boys and young men start the Brotha2Brotha sessions. So in terms fo HIV testing and services, we encourage them to be tested. And we have seen a gradual increase in terms of access to HIV related services as well as SRH service. Like when our cohort has 1000 males, uptake of HIV testing services is 90 percent and above. Programs are helping male to improve their health seeking behavior,” Mushove said.
An 18 year old male from Hopely commended the organizers for coming up with such a campaign in their area saying it came at the opportune time when his agemates are engaging in drug and substance misuse.
